Category Archives: Patient and Family Advisory Councils

Before I joined OpenNotes, I worked at Health Care For All, one of the country’s leading consumer healthcare advocacy non-profits. I was part of a team, which included volunteers, that successfully advocated for a law requiring all Massachusetts hospitals to establish Patient and Family Advisory Councils (or PFACs). Such councils exist in thousands of U.S. […]

Deborah W. Wachenheim, MPP, is the manager of stakeholder engagement for OpenNotes where she works to spread implementation across the country and to involve patients and families in advocating for ready access to notes. Deborah earned a master's degree in public policy from Harvard Kennedy School and has a background in consumer engagement in health care. She led efforts requiring that all Massachusetts hospitals establish Patient and Family Advisory Councils and developed a statewide network to provide technical assistance and resources to PFACs in Massachusetts.

The idea of patient-centered care resonates well with me, and other nurses who have long valued the central role of patients and families in the delivery of care. Some of my most memorable pediatric patients had miraculous recoveries, and the one aspect that all of these patients had in common was an engaging family support […]

Arundi Venkayya is marketing and public relations manager for Taylor Healthcare, curator of EngagingPatients.org and administrator of the Sherman Award program which recognizes excellence in patient and family engagement. Before joining Taylor Healthcare, Arundi was an editor at the Dayton Daily News and served as public relations manager for Dayton Children's Hospital.